I just finished "Stray" - A brief review and my personal takeaways

Before I go into the topic of this write up, I do want to clarify my thoughts on writing reviews or critiques. As a game developer myself, I have the privilege of being in the forefront of making games and also the understanding that behind every game feature and detail, there’s a long iteration process, last minute changes and production challenges that every studio and developer faces. With that experience and insight, its hard for me to be objective and criticize or highlight a game’s shortcomings. However, I do like discussing games and sharing personal takeaways from the game so I wanted to write an opinion piece about “Stray” and hopefully continue writing about other games I finish.

Also I'd like to extend my wishes and congrats to Studio Bluetwelve and their highly talented team who took a concept that's equal parts absurd and amazing and made a game with a lot of heart and beauty.

Stray took me close to 8 hours to finish and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Generally, I am not a big fan of linear games as it tends to feel restrictive yet Stray was a delightful exception despite it’s constrained nature. The game’s mechanics are fairly simple and don’t really try to challenge players too much. This works in it’s favor as you keep progressing at a steady pace and the game does not overstay its welcome. The feeling of controlling a cat is very well executed with amazing animations (although at times clunky), well crafted camera design and controls that feel responsive and enjoyable. The game’s world design is amazing with interesting cities that offer mini open world like experience with a lot of interaction opportunities that often result in wholesome scenarios. Talking to NPCs often hint at clues towards content or progression and secondary interactions like rubbing against their feet and a dedicated “meow” button often lead to cute reactions. The story is pretty engaging but what elevates it from a decent story to an interesting thought provoking one is the perspective from which we see the story.

If you have not played Stray and you like short linear games that takes 6-10 hours to finish, I highly recommend the game. Further on I will be going into spoilers so if you want to keep reading, don't blame me :)

*spoilers*

Stray takes place in a post apocalyptic setting that forces you to look at the downfall of a civilization but from a perspective of a life form that barely had anything to do with it. Humans are at fault (as always) and its the typical human nature and robots that try to mimic the human behavior. Playing as a cat just makes the act of “human selfishness” that much more painful and frustrating. We humans have claimed the planet as ours, justify it's destruction and use violence as a means of progress that make the world a dangerous place to live for us and other life forms. Kudos to BlueTwelve for not just using the “Cute Cat Game” tag as a gimmick and telling a story where it’s impact is amplified because of the gimmick. They’ve struck a tough balance between the cuteness, innocence, light heartedness of playing as a cat and the sort of dark backdrop its set against.

The game’s tone is also very well executed with intriguing mystery, dense atmosphere, brief moments of tension and horror and lot of chill vibes. Interacting with the NPCs of the world is genuinely fun and I was always looking forward to seeing what reaction shows up on the monitor when I rub against their feet or meow next to them. The characters you meet throughout the game are all very friendly and are genuinely the best part of the game. In contrast, all sections with the mutant rats "Zurks" are enjoyably tense. The game also includes some stealth sections that are more of comfortable timing challenges.

A cute and mysterious companion robot (B12) helps you and guides you throughout the game. The main structure of the game is to help this robot piece together its memories through exploration and completing main story objectives. Each memory completes B12’s memory and gives insight into its past thereby fleshing out the characters of the world and giving more information of its backstory. Best part of the B12 character is the revelation that happens close to the end of the game. It is revealed that B12 was once a human (a scientist) and has taken over this robot device after transferring the scientist’s consciousness. Further on B12 also remembers that the scientist was the last human being alive. This information makes the ending of the game a lot more poetic and impactful. The sacrifice B12 makes to give freedom to the robots of the city and allowing them to be able to go into the much talked about “Outside world” feels like a redemption arc for what humans had done to the planet.

More obvious positives of the game are its strong visual design and art direction, well crafted visual language to keep players guided without making it feel forced, great music and amazing sound design. A lot of effort has gone into attention to detail as well to fill spaces with physics objects that somehow also maintain its shadow accuracy, interactive objects like spilled paints that leave cute paw decals for a few seconds and collectibles that lead to wholesome interactions with characters.

Overall there’s a lot to unpack in the game for people who want to look for it. If you don't want to dig too deep into it’s narrative, there’s enough entertaining content, the storytelling is great and the game justifies its price point well enough. The heart and innocence of the game was a truly great contrast to its themes about nature and humanity as observed from another life form’s perspective. These are my thoughts as I just put down my controller going through the credits.